Talks With Mr. Gladstone

Tollemache, Lionel A. Talks With Mr. Gladstone. London: Edward Arnold, 1898. First edition.

Large octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2″). 181, [3], 32pp (Publisher’s advertisement). Uncut and partly unopened. Original red cloth, with gold lettering to front cover and spine. Tissue-guarded photographic frontispiece portrait of William Ewart Gladstone.

Published a month after Gladstone’s death, Lionel A Tollemache’s book is a journal of the conversations he had with him beetween the years 1856-1870, and 1891-1896. It sheds an interesting light on the character of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), a British Liberal politician whose career spanned over sixty years.

Gladstone served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868-74, 1880-85, February to July 1886 and 1892-94), more than any other person, and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times. He was also Britain’s oldest Prime Minister; he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old.

Spine age-toned, with moderate water-staining on back cover and at lower margin of front board. Previous owner’s bookplate on front free endpaper (Margaret Skilton). Binding in overall good-, interior in very good condition. g- to vg. Hardcover. (41460) $65